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Dopers in Uniform

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Breaking down the “Blue Wall of Silence,” this landmark book investigates the widespread, illegal use of anabolic steroids in major urban police departments and how it contributes to excessive violence in American policing.

The recorded use of deadly force against unarmed suspects and sustained protest from the Black Lives Matter movement, among others, have ignited a national debate about excessive violence in American policing. Missing from the debate, however, is any discussion of a factor that is almost certainly contributing to the violence—the use of anabolic steroids by police officers. Mounting evidence from a wide range of credible sources suggests that many cops are abusing testosterone and its synthetic derivatives. This drug use is illegal and encourages a “steroidal” policing style based on aggressive behaviors and hulking physiques that diminishes public trust in law enforcement.

Dopers in Uniform offers the first assessment of the dimensions and consequences of the felony use of anabolic steroids in major urban police departments. Marshalling an array of evidence, John Hoberman refutes the frequent claim that police steroid use is limited to a few “bad apples,” explains how the “Blue Wall of Silence” stymies the collection of data, and introduces readers to the broader marketplace for androgenic drugs. He then turns his attention to the people and organizations at the heart of police culture: the police chiefs who often see scandals involving steroid use as a distraction from dealing with more dramatic forms of misconduct and the police unions that fight against steroid testing by claiming an officer’s “right to privacy” is of greater importance. Hoberman’s findings clearly demonstrate the crucial need to analyze and expose the police steroid culture for the purpose of formulating a public policy to deal with its dysfunctional effects.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One: What We Know about Cops on Steroids

Chapter Two: Police Chiefs and the Steroid Dilemma

Chapter Three: Police Unions and Steroids

Chapter Four: The Gym Culture, Where Muscular Cops Meet

Chapter Five: Steroids in the Military

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Appendix: An Iraq War Army Veteran on Steroid Use in Combat, by Shawn Fogarty

Notes

Index

Author:

JOHN HOBERMAN
Austin, Texas

Hoberman is a social and medical historian at the University of Texas at Austin who has spent thirty years researching, lecturing, and publishing on the various social impacts of anabolic steroids. His books include Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport and Testosterone Dreams: Rejuvenation, Aphrodisia, Doping.

Reviews:

“This book could hardly be better timed. In light of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, I am convinced that it will attract interest from all people concerned about the apparently increasing police violence. Hoberman’s insights will stimulate heated debates and political reflections both within the affected institutions and in the civil society depending on and subject to these institutions. This book is truly groundbreaking.”
Verner Møller, Aarhus University, Denmark, author of The Ethics of Doping and Anti-Doping: Redeeming the Soul of Sport? and coeditor of the Routledge Handbook of Drugs and Sports

“To my knowledge, no one has presented the hard truth to the general public and the criminal justice community the way this outstanding book does. It will certainly become a research tool for students tasked to examine use of force, addiction issues, and illegal drug use by American law enforcement and military members.”
Stan Crowder, Kennesaw State University, coauthor of Anabolic Steroid Abuse in Public Safety Personnel: A Forensic Manual